Telling the tales of 'Sorrows Revisited'

Sunday

Sep 30, 2012 at 4:00 AM

By LYDIA GEHRING Living Editor

WOOSTER -- "Speaking of Pigs," "The Train of Blue Lights" and "The Best Little Brothel in Brianon" are just a few of the worlds a reader will travel to in Wooster resident Erwin Riedner's book on stories of France during 1940-1944.

"Sorrows Revisited" tells the stories of some of the residents in France who Riedner came in contact with during his 40-year experience traveling and living in the region.

Take for example, a chapter titled "The Miller's Tale," where Riedner focused on a land lady he and his wife, Susan, had met while living near a woman who was renting out a quaint little French home.

"She essentially lived across the street from the house that she was renting," Riedner explained. "She had a clothes line, and I had some colorful Gap underwear that I was hanging up. The land lady came over and started chatting about my underwear and that's how we got the story from her. This book is all about the idea of being chummy with people."

The stories that Riedner speaks of are ones that accumulated over the years, ones he found from "just listening" to the friends he made. Although he spent 40 years collecting what to put in the book, it took him just four years to write and piece together how it should fit together.

While living in France, Riedner began to hear stories from the residents there, and they began to take on a theme, which is why he eventually decided to write "Sorrows Revisited."

"We made so many friends," he said. "Outside of Paris, the French love Americans. The important thing was that we spoke French, and that we cared so much about this subject. ... There are an awful lot of people here who experienced the second World War. Violence and war don't just affect the soldiers."

There are many stories of the French that Riedner included in his book, and some he not, like one about a town plumber and his family.

"We were in a small city in a very mountainous area, and I went to the mayor and asked him if there was anyone I could talk to," Riedner explained. "He said I should go talk to the plumber. I went up to him and found a man that was much younger than I was expecting, and found it was the plumber's son. I told him what I was doing and asked if it was something his father would be interested in. He told me that he thought so."

Riedner and his wife came back the following day -- with a well-wishing bottle of wine in tow -- to speak with the plumber and his family. Riedner's first question was why there was such a large number of Jewish names on mailboxes throughout the town.

"The plumber said a lot of resistance fighters would come and spend 2-3 days at our house to clean up from the war," Riedner said. "One night, the plumber said there was a knock on the door and there was a man, woman and two children who had escaped from Paris, and somehow gotten to their home. So the plumber and his family dispersed this Jewish family throughout the town, and eventually, more and more came to their home. Somehow, word had gotten out that this was a good place to go and escape."

A former faculty member at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a pediatric audiologist for Baltimore County, Md., Riedner has written three books. "Sorrows Revisted" is available locally through the Wooster Book Company by visiting www.woosterbook.com or calling 330-264-1688. It is also available at book retailers across the country, online and as an ebook.

Living editor Lydia Gehring may be reached at 330-287-1655 or living@the-daily-record.com. She's lgehringTDR on Twitter.

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